13816 – Wild Wanderer

West Trinity Peak – 13,765, Trinity Peak – 13,816 & East Trinity Peak – 13,745

* I did these peaks with Arrow Peak as a weekend hike. CalTopo put the entire route at 41 miles, 10511′ of elevation gain, Strava gave me 30.9 miles and 15795′ of elevation gain. Either way, it was a good workout (see photos at end). Approach directions can be found here.

After hiking Arrow Peak I decided to get a look in the daylight at the approach to the Trinities. I continued southeast along the same trail I’d hiked in on until I came to the area where I was supposed to begin the ascent up to the Trinities

However, when I got there I noticed there wasn’t a place to set up camp, and the area had a lot of water. I couldn’t find a good place to cross the water without getting seriously wet. I did not want to start a hike early in the morning wet and cold.

I thought about the route for a minute, went through some pictures I’d taken earlier in the day from Arrow Peak, and decided to continue along the trail for a bit to see if I could find a better spot to set up camp, and a better entry point. This hike is a loop, so I just continued heading southeast. The trail became more and more faint as I hiked along

After hiking for a mile and a half I came to the area I intended to spend the night at 11,970’. There were waterfalls here, a creek, willows, and a few trees.

I set up a bivy under a tree, filtered some water, ate an early dinner, and jotted notes down in my journal.

There was a 20% chance of rain today, and wouldn’t you know it? It started to rain. Also, the clouds looked like they were going to attack me.

Luckily the rain stopped and I decided to head over to the creek again. This creek looked much easier to cross then the marshy area, but in the interest of not needing to change out of my hiking boots and into my sandals tomorrow morning (thus eliminating unnecessary gear) I decided to build a rock bridge over the creek. I put on my water sandals and got to work. It was my intention to hike up this side of the mountain and connect with the proper trail once in the basin. I wasn’t 100% sure the route ‘went’ but it seemed like a better option than ascending from below. I figured it this didn’t work I’d turn around and start with East Trinity instead, and get wet on my way out.

When I was done making the rock bridge it was still too early to go to sleep. There wasn’t much to do so I relaxed, enjoyed the view, and broke out the whiskey. Before the day was out I had about 16oz of whiskey (I knew because I’d placed it in a marked sports bottle. Also, I have a high tolerance for alcohol and don’t get hangovers so this isn’t out of character for me). I saw a group of hikers come over the pass and head towards me. They were doing Vestal tomorrow and were looking for a place to camp for the night. I told they they’d have better luck near the approach and they were off. Not long after that I went to bed. It was still early, but it had been a long day. Whiskey puts me to sleep.

I woke up well before my alarm. It was still dark out but there was a full moon and I could see the mountains clearly. I saw shooting stars and thought to myself how lucky I was to be here right now. I was actually warm (that’s rare for me when I backpack) and I didn’t want to get up. I also didn’t need to for a while. I watched clouds come in and started to worry: there was a 40% chance of rain after noon today and I didn’t want to get stuck in the rain while on the traverse. I’d heard from other hikers yesterday it took about 8 hours to complete. I did some math in my head and decided to get up and get going. The last time the weather had said 40% chance of rain after noon I got caught in a thunderstorm at 9:30am.

I’d prepped most of my gear last night, so this morning all I had to do was roll up my sleeping bag and put away my bivy sack and ground cover. I filtered some more water and I was off. (side note: I’ve had the same water filter since 1998, and wouldn’t you know it, they’ve improved since then? This week I bought a gravity bag water filter, and it’s AMAZING! I can fill my entire water bottle in 2 minutes, and since there’s a lot of water in the area I convinced myself to drink as much as possible this weekend. Normally I don’t drink while hiking, but this weekend I filled up my Nalgene 3 times!)

It was just beginning to get light out when I set off at 5am. I hiked straight up the side of the mountain, and when I reached the top I was thrilled to see my idea had worked: the route easily connected with the trail (there wasn’t a trail exactly, but the routes lined up and I was now going in the right direction).

There were several headlamps already shining on Wham Ridge. Looks like they got an even earlier start than I did. Smart. I was a little worried about the cloud cover. I could see rain in the distance and the clouds were forming fast. I told myself I’d keep going until I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t feel my real point of no return would come until I summited West Trinity and decided to either head back or continue on for the day.

I dipped down a bit into the basin and headed south towards the ridge. There seemed to be a couple of options to ascent the ridge. I chose the gully directly in front of me.

The gully started out with large boulders and ended with scree. I took it slow and kept an eye on the weather.

At the top of the gully I turned left and headed east to the saddle. This was a very simple trek that followed a faint trail behind the ridge.

The first part of this trek was simple and straightforward as I hiked up the ridge

Then it became more tricky. There were no cairns here. I stayed on the south side of the mountain and continued climbing east. I encountered a series of class 4 gullies and took them up. There were several gullies and they all seemed to ‘go’. (Side note: when I got home I pulled up 4 different GPX files of this route and none of them lined up in this area, so it seems there are several ways to climb this part).

The gullies eventually brought me to the ridge, which I followed to the summit

I summited West Trinity Peak at 8am

West Trinity Peak

The weather looked like it would hold so I made the decision to continue towards Trinity Peak (also, I didn’t want to downclimb those gullies! Definitely do this traverse west to east if you’re not a fan of downclimbing gullies, as the gullies don’t quit and you’d have to downclimb every one of them heading east to west).

I continued southeast towards the West Trinity/Trinity Saddle

Instead of following the ridge, take the gully down. It’s class 2 and leads you to the saddle. You won’t be losing any unnecessary elevation.

Interestingly, there were cairns between West Trinity and Trinity Peak. This is interesting because they would have been useful elsewhere, but were only present for this short section.

Don’t stick to the ridge, but follow the cairns as they skirt the south side of the mountain

The cairns (circled in red) were very helpful here

They led me to a class 4 chimney. Climbing today seemed extremely easy. It was really nice to just hike with a flimsy drawstring pack instead of my normal backpack. The difference in my climbing ability was amazing. I wasn’t off center and pulling myself up was a breeze.

At the top of the chimney you’ll want to keep heading right towards the ledge, but DON’T DO THIS!!! I did, and I can tell you that ledge is super scary (but doable if you hug the ridge: there’s less than a foot of space to walk on and not much room when the boulders bulge out). However, you’ll need to do it twice because it doesn’t go anywhere and cliffs out.

Instead, go left and you’ll once again find cairns that will lead you north and then east to the summit

I summited Trinity Peak at 9:25am. It took less than an hour and a half to get from the summit of West Trinity to Trinity.

Trinity Peak

Here’s a look over at East Trinity Peak

I took the gully down to the saddle of Trinity/East Trinity

The entire time I was descending I kept my eye on East Trinity, looking for the best way to ascend. It looked to me like the best option would be to keep towards the center until the end, where I wanted to summit towards the left to avoid any difficult traverse there may be if I topped out on the right (side note: there didn’t appear to be any difficulties if I’d chosen to summit to the right instead). You can’t see it in this picture, but at the very top there are two chimneys to the left. Take the one on the right (I cliffed out about 10 feet from the summit and had to retreat and find a different route).

At the saddle there was a gully to cross before heading up

Once inside the gully the rock was surprisingly stable, but there were a lot of large rocks that were easy to kick down, so if you’re hiking with a partner be careful not to dislodge rocks.

The only time I had trouble was when I got towards the top. Like I said before, stick to the left, and then choose the gully to the right.

This was class 4 climbing.

To my left I saw another ‘kissing camel’ formation. The cool thing about this one is it includes a heart

After taking the wrong route, cliffing out and backtracking, I headed a little more south and found an area I could climb and make it to the ridge

I was thrilled when I topped out and could see the summit an easy hike away!

I summited East Trinity Peak at 10:30am. It had taken me less than an hour to make it to East Trinity from Trinity.

East Trinity Peak

Here’s a look back at Trinity Peak. I was talking with someone on my hike out who told me she’d attempted the traverse a few years ago, but couldn’t find a way to summit Trinity Peak. They’d ‘missed the peak’. If you’re unable to find the access points, or want to keep this part of the hike class 2 (or easy class 3), just make your way to the Trinity/East Trinity saddle and hike back up the gully to summit Trinity Peak (shown below)

Time to head back down. The ridge down from East Trinity was straightforward.

With a couple of surprisingly steep sections

I made it to the saddle and scree-surfed down the gully to the lake

I skirted the right side of the lake and headed back down to my camping area

Here’s a look back at the route I took down from the East Trinity ridge

I made it to my stashed gear at 11:22am. The traverse had taken me just under 6.5 hours to complete. Notes on the traverse: It’s very committing, there’s a lot of route finding, and I felt in the route I took there were a lot of class 4 moves. I got a lot of good scrambling practice in, and honestly wish I would have attempted this traverse earlier: I felt like I leveled up in my class 4 climbing skills, and I was deliriously happy with this hike. And the weather had held! Woot!

I filtered some more water, took off my shoes to air out my feet, and ate a couple of sliced mangoes (my first food of the day: I get nauseous when I eat and hike but figured I needed some calories for the way out).

Time to head out. I found a stick that made a great trekking pole to replace the one I’d lost yesterday and headed out the same way I headed in, after about a mile of wading through willows and water to find the trail.

Connecting back up with the class 1 trail that would lead me to the beaver ponds, through the avalanche area, straddling the creek and bringing me back to the Animas River. I saw a ton of people on the trail, and talked to every one of them.

Once at the river I crossed the bridge and sat down for a while to rest before tackling the 4 miles and 1700’ of elevation gain back up to Molas Pass. I took off my shoes and soaked my feet in the river, filtered more water, and tried to eat a packet of tuna (I ate half). There were CT hikers across the river from me. They shouted and asked if I minded if they bathed. I’ve been there, and I didn’t care. They seemed overjoyed at the idea of a bath, and I wasn’t going to deny them that gift.

There were mosquitoes and fleas here so I didn’t stay long. I packed my gear back up and started switchbacking up the mountain to Molas Pass

I left my newfound trekking pole at the information sign and made it back to my truck at 6pm. It had taken me about an hour and 45 minutes to hike those 4 miles and 1700’ from the river. I got different mileages/elevations from Strava and CalTopo for my triup, so I’ll leave those here.

In the end, I was thrilled I’d decided to hike today! Sometimes it’s really difficult to get started, but once I’m going I’m really enjoying myself, and the sense of accomplishment I get from summiting peaks and challenging myself is amazing.

Also, I’ve done this approach as a day hike (with Vestal) and this time backpacking for Arrow and the Trinities. For me a day hike is absolutely the way to go: The extra weight made the trek in and out so much more tiring than it needed to be. Long days don’t bother me. Everyone’s different, but I much more enjoyed the hike in and out from Vestal than I did this time.

Mt Meeker 13,916, Meeker Ridge (UR) 13,861, & Southeast Longs (UR) 14,060

RT Length: 13.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 5764’

There are so many routes up Mt Meeker, and some have pretty cool names: Flying Dutchman, Dream Weaver, Dragon’s Tail, etc. I chose the Iron Gates route because for some reason it sounded cool to climb through The Iron Gates. I was also told this route had the best views of Longs Peak (I wasn’t disappointed). Plus… the knife edge between Meeker Ridge and Mt Meeker sounded like fun, and I wanted to find out what a “flying buttress” was.

I was surprised with how many vehicles were in the Longs Peak Trailhead parking area when I arrived. It’s a large lot, and was at least halfway full. Several hikers were readying their gear. Last time I was here was the Friday before a Labor Day weekend, and I hadn’t seen very many people at all. I saw dozens of hikers on the trail this morning.

I arrived at the parking lot at 2:30am and was on the trail by 2:40am. I chose to take the Chasm Meadows Approach from Longs Peak Trailhead. The trail starts to the left of the Rangers Station.

I could see headlamps shining brightly ahead of me, and passed four groups of hikers before making it to the first junction about ½ a mile from the trailhead. Stay left here

The trail is definitely class 1 all the way to Chasm Lake. I saw multiple groups ahead of me, all intent on Longs Peak. They had very bright headlamps. Very bright. In fact, at times they were almost blinding, especially as I got closer to a group of hikers and they’d turn around to look at me. I realized this morning just how dim my flashlight actually is (but I like it that way: sometimes a bright flashlight gives too much information).

Around treeline I could see the full moon with city lights in the background.

After making it to treeline there’s still 1.7 miles left to Chasm Lake. Stay left here as well.

About a mile before reaching chasm lake there’s a trail junction where you can stop for a bit to use the privy and let your horses rest.

Having to do neither I continued on towards chasm lake, a little disappointed to lose a couple hundred feet in elevation in the process.

Here there were a couple of small snow areas to cross that were quite slippery in the morning, but easy to navigate in the afternoon.

Just before Chasm Lake the trail ended. I made it to this area while it was still dark and it looked like there was a lot more snow than there actually was. The dotted line is the route I took up the gully, the solid one is the route I took on my way back down. This ended up being a good approach, as the solid way down went through a waterfall that would have been messy in the dark.

My goal was to make it to the Iron Gates. In the dark I couldn’t see much and while I knew I was headed in the correct direction I didn’t have a visual yet of the Iron Gates.

The terrain at the base of the Iron Gates was very loose scree, mixed with small rocks. As I climbed higher the ground became loose talus that became more stable until it eventually turned into solid rocks. I headed straight through to the back of the Iron Gates

Here the sun began to rise and I was able to see why this route is said to have great views of Longs Peak

At the end of the Iron Gates there’s some class 3 scrambling to gain the ridge

There’s a cairn at the top I made a mental note of to help me find the entrance on the way back down

Here’s a look back down the Iron Gates at Chasm Lake

At the top of the Iron Gates I turned right (south) and climbed the northeast ridge to Meeker Ridge (the unranked peak, not the ridge itself)

Yes, there were some pretty awesome views of Longs Peak

I made it to Meeker Ridge at 6:45am. I got a quick selfie and video at this unranked 13er

Meeker Ridge:

Up until this point the hike had been easy, but now it was about to get a little spicy. It was time to traverse the short ridge between Meeker Ridge and Mt Meeker. This ridge has a ‘mini-knife edge’ similar to the one on Capitol Peak. I was able to stick to the ridge for this short traverse, dropping down to the right only once when absolutely necessary. This is a solid class 3 ridge with exposure.

Here’s a tip for the knife-edge part: It’s very similar to the one on Capitol Peak, and would make for a great practice run if you’re hesitant to try Capitol but feel solid with class 3 climbing. While on Meeker’s knife edge you can cross and use your right foot for balance by placing it on the rock beneath the ledge. This rock is underneath the knife ledge and difficult to see, but a few inches wide, solid, and you can use it for extra balance if needed. The rock here felt more solid than on Capitol.

Here’s looking back at Meeker Ridge

And some of the climbing/exposure on route

I made it to the summit of Mt Meeker at 7:15am, or what I thought was the summit of Mt Meeker. At the top of the traverse there were two points about 40 feet apart that both looked like the true summit. I sat on top of the first point, but the second point looked higher. So I went over and climbed to the top of the second point, but from there the first point looked higher. So I decided to take a video from the middle of both points and pictures from both.

Mt Meeker:

It was still early in the morning and the weather was holding out nicely. I decided to descend Mt Meeker and cross the Loft towards Longs Peak. Longs Peak wasn’t my goal, as I’ve already summited Longs, but I wanted to get a look at the Notch route up Longs and summit Southeast Longs (an unranked 14er sub summit). Southeast Longs is where the orange line ends.

To get there I descended 450’ to the loft, and then gained 600’ to the top of Southeast Longs.

The rocks here were solid and much larger than they looked from Mt Meeker. There were a bunch of social trails here so I just took the path of least resistance to the top.

I made it there at 8:25am. You can see Longs Peak Summit in the background

Curious as to what the Notch and path to Longs Peak looked like from here I descended to the cairn that indicated the entrance to the Notch and looked over. It looked like a class 3 scramble that would lose a couple hundred feet in elevation, and then re-gain it on the other side, connecting with the traditional Longs Peak Route just before the final pitch.

I briefly thought about attempting Longs Peak as well, but did some mental calculations and figured it would get me back around 3-3:30pm, and I really wanted to be back around 1:30pm, so I decided to save Longs Peak round 2 for another day. Also, there were a ton of people queued for the final push on Longs (I could see/hear them) and a lot of people on the summit as well. I’m not a fan of crowds, especially on peaks. In any event, I still had some more climbing to do myself, as I needed to re-ascend Mt Meeker to head back. I did not want to make this a loop.

The clouds were starting to build as I gained Meeker’s ridge

While they looked ominous at first (especially for being so early in the day) nothing came of them. The clouds did hide the sun for most of my return back to the trailhead and I did get a few drops of rain here and there, but I was never worried about thunderstorms.

Time for knife-edge part 2. I felt much more confident the second time around, and the traverse went much faster. I was well aware of the group of 15 or so people on top of Longs Peak watching me make the traverse. I could hear them talking to each other as I climbed up boulders and balanced on the ridge.

Just as I made it back to Meeker Ridge I met a young man beginning his attempt of the traverse. He’d had a long day, starting from Sandbeach Lake. I wished him luck and was on my way back down the Northeast Ridge towards the Iron Gates

As Chasm Lake came into view I could hear loud shouts that sounded like a large group was down there having fun. A group was paddleboarding. It seemed like a lot of work to me to get multiple paddleboards up to Chasm Lake, but hey, they must really be into the sport. I wondered to myself if it was legal to paddleboard there? I descended into the Iron Gates and had no problem on the larger rocks/talus. However, descending the scree was a bit of a small nightmare. I was so glad when I made it to the bottom of the Iron Gates and turned around to see them in the daylight

I followed the gully more to the west this time and descended via a wide waterfall area with small rivers of water flowing throughout

This brought me to the base of Chasm Lake, where I picked up the trail back to Chasm Meadows. This is also where I met up with a group of 12 or so campers from a nearby camp. I could tell immediately they weren’t Girl Scouts because there was only 1 adult with them, the girls were all wearing shorts and did not look like they’d been “roughing it”. I asked them where they were from and wished them well as I hiked out.

A few minutes later as I reached the Jims Grove area I could hear the girls behind me, their counselor yelling at them every 10 seconds or so to “hurry up” even though they were setting a fast pace. Long story short, she pushed them too hard and one of the girls clipped and fell. She’s alright and just scraped her knee, but I hope the counselor learned her lesson and slowed down a bit.

It was great seeing the waterfall crossing areas on my way down in the daylight.

I made it back to my truck at 1:15pm, making this a 13.5 hour hike with 5764’ in elevation gain in 10 hours 30 minutes

Today’s hike was absolutely beautiful! I can’t wait to head back here to tackle a few more 13ers…

American Peak – 13,814, Jones Mountain – 13,867, Niagara Peak – 13,816′

(part 2 of 2)

Part 2 of 2

RT Length: 7.3 miles

Elevation Gain: 3800’

My drive to the trailhead took me through Silverton. I’d heard the fall colors weren’t supposed to peak here for another 2 weeks, but right now it looks beautiful.

I had conflicting directions on how to get to the Burns-Gulch trailhead, so I brought both with me. From Silverton I took County Road 2 past Eureka on a 2WD dirt road, and ate the dust from off road vehicles driving ahead of me the entire way. For a Monday afternoon it sure was crowded: Leaf peeping season is definitely in full swing!

I made it to the base of the trailhead on the Animas River and my directions ended but I knew this wasn’t where the 4WD trail began. So I pulled up a GPX file of the route to see where I needed to be: about 2 miles up a narrow shelf road.

The road was much narrower and steeper than it looks and filled with bowling ball sized rocks. I took it slow: this road was more difficult than I’d anticipated (but nothing my truck couldn’t handle). I just hoped no one would drive towards me from the top: There was no way I could turn this truck around on such a narrow road, and passing another vehicle wouldn’t be easy.

There was a campsite at the 4WD trailhead at 11,720’ and no other vehicle in sight. Sweet! It looked like I was going to have the site all to myself for the night.

I got to work making dinner: Mountain House Beef Stroganoff. When it was ready I poured myself a glass of wine in the measuring cup I brought for making dinner, sat back, and enjoyed the view.

Life is good! Sitting in the bed of my truck looking at the mountains was so relaxing. As I was sitting there I heard a creek to my right and got up to investigate. This was wonderful! It was about 10 yards from where I’d parked my truck. I enthusiastically washed my hands in the running water. They were gross from today’s adventure and it felt good to have clean hands and fingernails again. I got up to turn around and head back when my left sandal broke. I mean really broke, like duct tape can’t fix it broke. Drat! I was going to have to tiptoe the 10 yards back to my truck without wearing shoes. The first step I took landed my left foot on a thistle. Wonderful. I made it back to my truck, poured myself another glass of wine and spent the next half hour picking splinters out of my foot (mostly on the heel and arch). I looked around at the mountains: Life was still good!

I got out my maps and route info for the next day and tried to identify the peaks around me and the best route to take (I had several options). I studied my chosen route until I felt it was time to get some sleep: it was starting to get cold.

I decided to sleep in the cab of my truck because I fit perfectly across the back seat and because I could. Two shots of whiskey later I was ready to go to sleep. I laid my head on my pillow and a fly landed on my arm. I thought about how much fun having a fly buzzing around me while I was trying to sleep would be and debated whether or not to open the door to let it out. In the end I decided I’d rather not let all the warm air out in doing so, so I made a deal with the fly: “Fred “(I named him Fred)”If you promise not to buzz around me all night I promise not to kill you right now”. Fred flew away to relax on my steering wheel and I fell asleep thinking this wasn’t a bad way to spend my last day of being 37.

I woke up at 11:11pm. This isn’t unusual, as I normally only get 4-6 hours of sleep a night. Obviously my body was ready to get up and start my day. I however was not. I took 3mg of melatonin, washed it down with another shot of whiskey, and spent 5 minutes star gazing before falling back to sleep.

My alarm woke me up at 5am. Why, oh why, oh why did I choose to sleep at a trailhead on my birthday? I hate sleeping at trailheads! I’m always cold and have a hard time getting going and all I really want to do is stay in my nice warm sleeping bag where it’s nice and warm. Sleeping.

Why hadn’t I done the sensible thing and reserved a hotel in Ouray?

Ugh. I could smell myself. Or was that my socks and shoes on the floor recovering from yesterday? Both. Definitely both. Well, the day wasn’t getting any younger. I needed to be off, so I slowly started through my morning machinations, taking much longer to get ready than it would have taken me at home. My coffee was cold. My hands were cold. It took me almost an hour but by 6am I was finally ready to go.

I decided to start by hiking to the Jones-American saddle, which I discovered isn’t a very popular route (most people start with the Jones/American saddle). The trail starts at the campsite and heads directly north up a hill, then east. (Sorry, no pictures: I did this in the dark and planned to get pictures on the way back, but there was an adventure that happened….)

I followed the road to a drainage and just headed up what was trying desperately and failing to be a waterfall.

From here I followed the drainage up a basin and to the right. Just continue sticking towards the bottom of the drainage and heading right.

I passed a very small pond (it’s been a dry year)

and navigated up the rest of the basin. There’s no established trail or cairns. This looks like a great route to ski in the winter. This is the route I took to the saddle

The base of the saddle is where I ran into trouble. I knew I had to gain the saddle, but neither of the options I saw looked better than the other.

I could have gone either left or right. I chose left. I chose wrong. As I got closer and closer to the saddle the ground became less and less stable and the path to the right looked more and more appealing and less steep. The ground wasn’t like loose scree, but more like compact sand my shoes couldn’t grip. It was slippery and I was dangerously close to sliding all the way back down the slope. At this time I realized this must be a snow route: perfect for skiing down or snowshoeing up.

I decided to aim for the rock wall area to the left, as it looked like it had more stable dirt around it. It didn’t. In fact, it was just as loose and slippery as the rest of the scree. I made it to the rocks and my first thought was “Why don’t I have my helmet? I need a helmet for this!!!” I had a helmet, it was just back at the trailhead in my truck because this was supposed to be a class 2 hike. The rock I’d wanted to climb was more of a rock wall than a rock couch. I’m talking straight up with hand and foot holds that crumble out from under you when you grab them. But it felt safer than the dirt/scree area. I was shaking, but I made it. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, and I’m glad I did this route first instead of last (I’d of had to re-summit Jones again because there was no way I was going down that unless I was on skis).

Here’s a look at the route I took to the top of the saddle. I know it doesn’t look like it but this was the safest option since I hadn’t taken the route to the right.

OK, now that I’d gained the saddle I looked at my route to American Peak.

Oh yeah… it looked like I’d be hiking into the sun again today. I put on my sunglasses and had at it. Here’s a clearer picture of the route from later in the day. Why does the peak I’m climbing always have to be the LAST peak on the ridge?

Most of this hike across the ridge was easy. It was a well traveled path with even a few cairns in places. It became difficult at the base of the last bump before the summit. For about 200 feet the rock became extremely loose and there was evidence of rockslides everywhere. It was difficult to find good footing, and once again I longed for my helmet. I’d read this was the easier ridge of the three I’d do today, but I disagree: this West Ridge to American Peak was the most difficult ridge I did today, but only the last part of the ridge. Here’s the final pitch to the summit

I summited at 8am

16 American Peak 13806

American Peak:

Here’s a look back on my route, and my next peak: Jones Mountain A.

I reversed my steps (the ridge was easier on the way back down) and made my way to the Jones/American saddle. I turned and faced the ridge. Here’s the route I took:

Believe it or not the initial climb up the ridge was more stable than the ridge on American Peak, it had some steps but still had scree.

About halfway up the terrain changed and I walked a class 2 ridge to the summit of Jones Mountain A

I summited at 9:15am

21 Jones Mountain A 13860

Jones Mountain A:

Here’s a look back at American Peak and what I consider the crux of that route

Now it was time to focus on Niagara Peak. The trail from here to the peak is well established. I just followed the trail down Jones Mountain A and up the ridge of Niagara Peak.

And a look back at Jones from the saddle

On my way down from Jones I saw a man hiking with his two dogs. I was surprised to see him, as I hadn’t expected to see anyone out here today. He was nicely and appropriately dressed for hiking with both a GPS and Walkie Talkie on either strap of his backpack. His dogs were leashed, well groomed and very well behaved. We stopped and discussed the Niagara/Jones saddle and descent, to which he didn’t think his dogs could make the loop. He would most likely head back the way he came. We parted ways, him to continue up Jones, and me towards Niagara Peak. He was the only hiker I saw all day.

Just after passing the hiker I was surrounded by a flock of birds. They kept following and avoiding me on the trail. I considered it good luck and figured there were 38 of them…

Birds:

I made it to the saddle of Jones/Niagara and looked at the ridge. There is a path but this is another class 2 ridge that has some steep sections and lots of scree. If I haven’t already mentioned it, microspikes would be helpful on this route, even without snow.

Here’s a picture looking back on the ridge

I summited Niagara Peak at 10am. Oh, and guess what? Niagara was my 38^th 13er! I summited my 38^th 13er on my 38^th birthday! Very cool! BTW, 38 feels great!

27 Niagara Peak 13807

Niagara Peak:

What a beautiful day! I’d considered hitting unranked 13ers Crown Mountain and North Crown Mountain, but I wanted to make it back to celebrate my birthday with my kids (and my son’s birthday: he’s headed for Basic training on Monday and he’ll turn 18 during boot camp, so I’d like to celebrate early). If I left now I could be home by 6pm, just as the kids were making it home as well.

So I turned and headed back to the Jones/Niagara saddle. This trail was much easier to navigate than the route I’d taken up. This route had a trail for 90% of the way, and where there wasn’t a trail you could see where it connected further down.

This is the route I took down. It hugged the right (east) ridge. This path took me back to my truck and the 4WD road that was obvious from the Jones/Niagara saddle.

Here’s a copy of my GPS tracks. The red circle is where I parked my truck overnight and began/ended my hike. The tracks are a little off: I forgot to hit stop on my tracker because of the adventure below… but it might help others who want to know how to get to the upper trailhead

As I was descending back to the Burns Upper 4WD trailhead where I’d parked my truck I noticed the man I’d seen earlier and his dogs walking around, looking at my truck. Hmmmm…. That was odd, but maybe they were just taking a break and checking out my truck. It is an awesome truck. I kept an eye on them as I kept hiking. Within half an hour I was back at my truck, and the man and his dogs were still there. He asked me a bit sheepishly if he and his dogs could hitch a ride down to the lower trailhead: his dogs were tired and their feet were sore.

Of course they could ride down with me!

He was happy and let me know he’d hiked up with his wife but she’d turned back much earlier in the hike and he’d continued on with the dogs. She was waiting for them at the lower trailhead by the river crossing.

Immediately my estimation of him as a person grew: I love it when a man who’s married lets me know early on in conversation he has a wife. It sets the tone in a positive way, and I respect a man who wants other women to know he’s married.

I cleaned up my truck (it had stuff from the past few days strewn all over since I’d also used it as a tent) and apologized for the smell (both from my dirty clothes and, well, me). He was happy to have a ride down and put the dogs in the back of the truck. They indeed looked tired.

I navigated the 4WD road as slowly as I could, cognizant of the fact I had two dogs in the back. I usually take these roads at a quick speed, but right now I was gingerly maneuvering around the rocks and unfortunately not avoiding them all. We hit a few big bumps, and my passenger kept looking back to make sure the dogs were ok.

The 2 miles took us about 20 minutes, and we talked about our jobs, my kids (I can talk about them all day), vehicles, and his life as a Doctor and his wife being a Veterinarian. They were staying in Ouray for vacation and are 14er/13er/hiking enthusiasts.

He also mentioned this was the first time his dogs had ever been in the back of a truck. I tried to take it a little slower, knowing the road was rough. About halfway down the road we ran into a Jeep heading up. It took some careful maneuvering, but we were able to pass each other on the narrow road. I was pretty proud of my driving skills, and thankful the other driver was willing to work together so we could both pass each other.

When we made it back to the bottom of the road I decided to navigate around the river instead of driving across it because of the dogs in the back. We pulled up next to his vehicle, where his wife was waiting. I jumped out of the truck, opened the tailgate, and… no dogs! What? Where were they?!?!?

When I announced the dogs weren’t there the woman had a shocked look on her face, and I felt as shocked as she looked. After some quick discussion we came to the conclusion the last time we’d seen the dogs in the back of the truck was around the time we’d passed the Jeep (that was the last time we’d checked). Well, there was no way we were going to have two lost pups on my watch. I knew their car couldn’t make it up the road, and I was determined to find those dogs (once they were in my truck I felt responsible for them), so I offered to drive the couple back up the road to look.

I drove very quickly this time, driving across the river and up the side of the mountain at a swift speed, concerned time was against us. Also, without the dogs in the back I didn’t have to be gentle. It wasn’t lost on me how I’d thought this road was difficult the first time I’d driven it, but now I wasn’t quite so worried about the road: I was worried about finding those dogs.

One of the dogs was white and it’s currently fall so I figured it would be easy to spot in all the brown grass.

We ended up finding them about halfway up the road, just before where we’d passed the Jeep. They were sitting side by side in the shade under a tree, panting with happy smiles on their faces. Luckily the hike had exhausted them and they hadn’t felt like running. They were also well trained dogs.

This time we put the dogs in the cab of the truck for the ride down. I was able to make a 9 point turn on the shelf road and headed back down to the lower trailhead. It was a good ending to the hike.

I was in a bit of a hurry now to get home. As soon as I hit cell service my cell phone blew up with tons of messages and important things I needed to address. I had the whole 7 hour drive home to think about everything and make phone calls. As I exited Silverton Fred landed on my hand and then quickly flew away. Wow, he’d stuck with me that entire time!

After making it back home at 7pm and taking a quick shower I decided to take the kids out for Ice Cream to celebrate our birthdays. Emily jumped into the front passenger seat of the truck and closed the door behind her. Two seconds later I heard her hit the window with the bottom of the measuring up I’d used last night for my wine. Emily looked at me and said: “There was a fly on the window, but he’s dead now”.